English Movie Review: Death Warrant

I had watched the Hindi Remake of this movie starring Bollywood action hero Suniel Shetty - Vinashak (1998), but at that time I didn't know this little detail. Anyway Death Warrant starring Jean Calude Van Damme is one heck of an action-crime movie set totally in the prison of Canada. Detective Louis Burke is a very successful undercover cop who solves all the cases he is assigned to. He is now requested by the chief of police and the judge to investigate the deaths of several inmates and guards in a prison in a different part of Canada. The modus operandi would be to get arrested as a common armed robber and infiltrate the prison gangs and find out exactly what is going on. Amanda Beckett (Cynthia Gibb) is the liaison between him and the justice department.

Things take an ugly turn once inside the prison, Burke is targeted by the gangsters for death. He discovers some ugly truths in the prison system. A human organ smuggling gang is operating inside the prison, the doctor, warden and several of the guards are involved. The boss of the whole operation is someone else in civil life and is discovered at the end.

The Hindi movie Vinashak is pretty much a frame-by-frame remake of this movie except for the fact that there is a liberal dose of drama thrown in. Few songs featuring the otherwise role-less female co-star in skimpy clothes, gyrating to the tunes, then a rape scene where the hero's sister gets killed and so on.

In my opinion each of the movie was appropriately made for the respective audiences. I can't say one is better than the other because the specific action sequences in both movies have been well executed. As far as a straight forward plot with fast moving storyline is concerned the English movie is the winner. As far as real entertainment, drama, music and a decent pace of the movie are concerned the Hindi movie scores.

Movie Review: The Champagne Gang

I watched The Champagne Gang on Youtube in the free movies section. This rather boring and predictable movie is based on a true story of four youngsters who live a high life stealing from grocery stores, pharmacies, and other commercial establishments. A gang of four young, sexy, athletic, and well spoken girls live in California and their way of making a living is by stealing cigarettes, alcohol and other easy to dispose items from grocery stores.

In the process they come across one of the hardened criminals who trains them in the art of breaking safes and breaking into grocery stores. He trains them to strike at the right time, i.e. when the safes are full of the weekly collections and when their theft would not be discovered instantly. The four girls also get trained in the art of disabling electronic security systems.

Soon they are breaking into stores and stealing large amounts of money, stamps and other valuables. The money makes them live the high life, driving flashy cars, living in a great home, visiting the fanciest clubs, etc. Of course the law catches up with them and they get caught. Smart girls they are they make a deal with the judiciary and get away with a simple 2-year sentence in which the four continue to share the same cell.

The movie is worth watching if you have lots of time on hand, if you don't watch it then you have not missed a whole lot.

Movie Review: 21 Jump Street

One thing about Americans, they have the capability of selling anything to anyone. Just like few Bollywood film makers take bits and pieces of several English movies and make one Hindi film, Sony pictures has made a full length feature film out of a TV series. I must say they have been quite successful at that and I am pretty sure this movie will be followed up by a series of others.

I wouldn't have even heard of the movie if not for a website http://www.gofobo.com which sent me two free passes to pre-release screening of the movie. Of course every movie buff in DFW seemed to be in the line to watch the free movie but we did manage to get in and grab a decent seat.

The movie deals with the highly over rated and mythical "High School Experience" in America. An age when kids are learning to be independent, party, try out recreational drugs, learn smoking and drinking habits, and mature into presumably "responsible adults". Jona Hill is Schmidt a nerdy high school kid who is dreaming about going to the prom with the hottest chick in school. Of course the girl rejects him. On the other hand is Channing Tatum playing Jenko, an academically dumb but sporty and cool kid in the school. He barely makes a grade and results in getting barred from attending the prom.

Fast forward seven years, the duo land up in the same class of the Police Academy and graduate to become bicycle cops. They are looking to arrest someone and make a name but only end up making fools of themselves. The chief fed up with their antics transfers them to a undercover unit known as 21 Jump Street. The head of the unit is trying to recruit young underachieving officers who look like high school kids to infiltrate high school and bust a crime ring that is selling a lethal drug to teenagers.

The rest of the story is how the duo fit into the high school life and how roles get reversed. Schmidt becomes the cool guy in sports, and drama, while Jenko becomes a nerd who hacks into the school's drug dealers phone. The movie is a laughter riot, it is definitely worth watching.

21 Jump Street is releasing in theaters on March 16, 2012, try to catch it first day first show.

Movie Review: Hero Wanted

What happens when a trash truck driver falls madly in love with a beautiful bank teller? Is able to muster up the courage to go and talk to her? Or will he pull some stupid stunt and cause a whole bunch of trouble?

That is the story of this movie I watched on Youtube. Cuba Gooding plays the role of Liam Case a trash truck driver who has recently lost his pregnant wife in an accident. One day Case is on his lunch break mulling over wife's memory he witnesses an accident in which a little girl is trapped inside a burning car. He jumps in and rescues the girl and becomes an instant Hero.

Case is madly infatuated with a bank teller and he devises a complicated plan to win her affection. He requests his friend to cause some trouble in the bank and he would scare him away and become a hero in front of her. This would help him win her affection and thus get his stable life back. Things go wrong, Case is double crossed and in the scuffle few people get hurt including the love of his life. An enraged Case starts taking revenge by eliminating the four people who were involved in the robbery.

What happens is the rest of the story. Is Case successful in getting his revenge? Will he win the love of his life? Will he get his life back in control? Watch the movie to know more. It is available free on Youtube.

Hindi Movie Review: Karma

This movie starring Jackie Shroff, Anil Kapoor and Naseeruddin Shah was released in 1986 and was a moderate hit at that time. The movie follows the theme of the legendary movie Sholay. Dilip Kumar plays the role of a compassionate jailer, Anupam Kher plays notorious terrorist commander Dr. Deng who gets arrested and placed the former's jail. In one of the interactions Dilip Kumar slaps Dr. Deng and earns his enemity. An angry Dr. Deng organizes his terrorist group and massacres the entire jail residents and Dilip Kumar's family.

In response Dilip Kumar decides to take revenge and he picks up three convicts in jail and trains them into fighting machines. Together they destroy Dr. Deng's empire and camps and eliminate him. Thus eliminating all the threats to India. This is one of the formula movies of Bollywood. Three heroes, two heroines, a villain and supporting actor. Five songs, couple of attempted rape scenes, etc. It is worth watching once and does definitely inflame passions for the country.

Kannada Movie Review: Mylari

Complete family entertainer from Shivanna!

I have said in this blog and elsewhere time and again that since the early 2000s the quality of Sandalwood movies has significantly improved. There is some real meat in the story, there are great and truly hummable songs without any double meaning. Then of course the acting and direction seems to have matured. Then of course there are a brood of imported heroines from other states who are vying for top spot in Sandalwood. All this means good entertainment for the average cine-goer in Karnataka. Hopefully now Kannadigas will start watching Kannada movies instead of patronizing other language movies.

Anyway coming to this movie, the central character Mylari (Shivrajkumar) is the older son of a rural farmer. He is not interested in studies and his father has to continuously coax, threaten, beat, plead with him to go to school. On the contrary his younger brother is a brilliant student who is doing great in school. This of course leads to discrimination from father and illtreatment of the older son. Then there is Anitha the heroine who is the village headman's daughter. She goes to the same school as Mylari and both of them are in love from childhood but neither has the courage to express it. So Mylari does the best he can, he writes his feelings in the form of poetry, and prose literature and becomes a great poet. His father of course doesn't appreciate it.

Finally one day Mylari comes to know that Anitha is getting engaged to someone else and takes the step to express his love. This leads to lot of complications and results in getting him thrown out of the house. He ends up in Bangalore and there starts the real saga. He hooks up with his old friend who has become a famous journalist in Bangalore. The latter gets him a job as a journalist/ writer and then the trouble starts. As a press reporter Mylari breaks some important stories against prominent political figures. The political leader threatens Mylari's friend and since nothing comes out of it he eliminates the entire family.

An enraged Mylari goes on a killing spree and eliminates the politician and his henchmen. Then he is arrested and sentenced to death by hanging. The entire story is said as a flash back. It is definitely worth watching and can be watched with the whole family. There are some real touching scenes in the movies, that have been excellently executed by the main actors.

Kannada Movie Review: Buddhivanta

Laughter Riot
 
Upendra starrer Buddhivanta (2008) is a movie in which Upendra has lucidly executed his role. The movie starts off with several people coming to lodge complaints with the police against one individual who has cheated their sisters off the money by entering into a fake marriage with them. When they compare the pictures of the complainant all of them have the same picture. The police are convinced that they are dealing with the same person who is masquareding as different individuals and taking the people for a ride. They are hot on pursuit for this individual. There is a bus accident and all the passengers are admitted into the hospital, when police come to investigate they find the culprit among the injured. The police arrest the accused and present him to court.
 
The rest of the movie is a courtroom drama with Upendra the hero effectively arguing his case against all the women. The judge played by Lakshmi has pretty much no role except to sit there and watch. The heroine Pooja Gandhi also doesn't have much role except for running behind Upendra like a mad woman. Towards the end of the movie it is revealed who Upendra really is and why he went into disguise and what he hoped to achieve by doing what he did.
 
I would say this is a complete family entertainer with a generous dose of comedy included. It is totally watchable once.